The Musings of Dudley
by Alarose
Summary: Uncle Dudley thinks on how he came into custody of Billy Batson AKA James Sirius Potter


"I'm home!" A loud voice called out.

"Spaghetti is on the table!" Dudley responded, flipping through his paper.

"Thanks, I'm starving!" The other man said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. Dudley glanced over the top of his newspaper at the back of the Captain Marvel's head.

"You know the rules," he said. Captain Marvel turned and smirked at him.

"Yeah, just checking if you're paying attention. Shazam!" A bolt of lightening shot through the ceiling and struck the Captain, changing him back into Billy Batson. Dudley went back to his newspaper while the boy ate.

_Wizarding World stands in mourning for the 10th anniversary of the death of Harry Potter_

_Ten years ago today, the legendary Harry Potter was attacked on what should have been one of the happiest days of his life. After bringing his wife to St. Mungo's for the birth of their first born son, Harry Potter was attacked by Neo-Death Eaters. His wife was later killed as well. Thanks to the heroic actions of the nurse on duty, Maria Higgenbaum, their newborn son was the only member of the family to escape. However, it was not without repercussion. Maria and the child were forced to hide in a potions storage room, which was destroyed by the terrorists. The child was taken away, but his family has kept silent on his location to keep him safe. Maria died of poisoning from the explosion 3 days later._

"I'm going to bed," Billy said, stretching.

"Did you do your homework?" Dudley asked. Billy groaned.

"No..." He said, sighing. "I'll go get my backpack." Dudley nodded absently, looking at the boy over the top of his paper. Billy's black hair was tamer than Harry's had been, but he also looked a lot like his mother from the pictures Dudley had seen of her. He had Ginny's brown eyes and light freckles.

Billy pulled out his bag and dropped it onto one of the chairs where he pulled one of his books out along with a small binder of paper. He looked like Harry when he concentrated, his eyebrows furrowed in the same way. He also spoke in his sleep sometimes, the same way Harry did.

Dudley still remembered the day Harry had shown up at his house, ragged, looking at him with sad eyes. The newspaper was wrong, Harry hadn't been the first to die that day. He'd managed to escape his attacker and, in the chaos, he found his dead wife. He immediately started searching for his son, and found the burning potions room. He found the nurse and the baby, pulling them both to safety. However, Harry was dying.

He brought the baby to Dudley. He said that if he left the baby with the Weasleys, the Death Eaters would find him and kill off the entire family. But no one knew about Dudley. After all, why would ickle Duddikins, son of magic haters, ever take in James Sirius Potter?

_Some part of my mother's protection must remain with him, I'm sure that this is the safest place for him right now._

_But I'm not a wizard, I can't do anything to protect him! what if they come for him? Or me?!_

_I have faith that this is the best place for him. I trust you, Dudley._

"Hey, Uncle Dudley, do you know how to balance out equations?" Billy asked, looking up from his work. A name change and a country change. And no one, not even Harry's friends who actually knew about Dudley, had been able to find the small family. Perhaps Harry's idea of hiding James in the non-magical world had been a good one. Of course, Dudley highly doubted that Harry ever though James' powers would manifest themselves by changing the boy into Captain Marvel.

Dudley may not know much about magic, but he was sure that it was not normal, even among wizards. Billy had told him a story of meeting an old wizard somewhere named Shazam who had given him his powers, which nearly gave Dudley a heart attack, but he knew it wasn't true. No, the boy's powers did not come from an old drunk who thought he could do magic, the boy's powers were a side effect of whatever had happened in the hospital that night.

"Sorry Billy. I sell drills, I don't really know how to do much math," said Dudley.

But however it had happened, Dudley was happy with his life.

"Dang. Hey, did I tell you about what Captain Marvel did today?"


End file.
